Cyber criminals on the prowl in MP, take gullible for a ride

Bhopal: “Hello I am calling from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). We have been informed that you have taken mutual fund policies from a few private banks. As per our information you have not received the bonus from your agent and you will not get it unless you transfer Rs 1 lakh to our account,” this was the first call 80-year-old Prakash Chand Jain, a former PWD chief engineer and resident of Shahpura, received in 2013. Thereafter, he received a series of calls from people posing as RBI, CBI and IRDA officials and was duped of Rs 45 lakh over three years.

His son Nikhilesh Jain, an Indore-based doctor, registered a complaint with Bhopal crime branch in April 2016. “It was when I went to the bank to update my father’s passbook that I was shocked to know a large amount of money had been transferred to some accounts. Then I learnt of the calls on the ruse of IRDA, CBI, and IRDA.” Some callers said he would be prosecuted. “He is too old and couldn’t understand they were taking him for a ride,” said Dr Jain. He followed it up with officials on a daily basis for a month. When nothing came of it, he gave up on it and feels crime branch didn’t even care to investigate the case. Not willing to give up, he played detective and tracked down the addresses of those who had called his father. These were in Delhi, Panipat, Ghaziabad, Karna and Samalkha. He passed on the information to CB but says there was no attempt to nab the cyber criminals.

When TOI contacted CB sub-inspector Vandana Singh, she said, “This is not the only case with us. We are dealing with other criminal cases and most of them the accused are from outstation. It is not possible to visit every place immediately. Our team did visit Delhi regarding this cyber case, but couldn’t find the culprit at the address provided by Nikhilesh Jain.” Police will visit Haryana as well, she said.

However, a police officer admitted that lack of personnel is hampering cyber crime investigations. “Under the IT Act, only an officer of the rank of inspector can investigate a cyber crime case. There are only three inspectors at the cyber cell. Cases related to cyber crime require deep investigation and proper proof since these are not routine criminal cases. With rising number of cyber crime cases, it is not possible to achieve success with poor staff strength and technical know-how.”

Of the 151 cyber crime cases registered in Madhya Pradesh in 2016, 70 cases are unsolved.

Cyber experts say that increase in use of Internet and mobile telephony has triggered a steep rise in cyber crime across the country. India ranks fifth in ecommerce security breaches and cyber crime has become the easiest mode for gangs to siphon off crores from the bank accounts of gullible people. The primary reason for this is lack of awareness among people.

Cyber crime attacks have mutated over time. First came, phishing attacks, carried out via email. Next came ‘voishing’ attacks — approaching the victim through voice calls. The latest trend is ‘smshing’ attack in which a victim is approached by attacker through social media on his smartphone.

Ajeet Hatti, a Pune-based cyber security expert, who has a team of 2,000 ethical hackers and works with government agencies like NTRO, said, “Primary reasons for cybercrimes are human tendencies — like greed, fear, lust and lack of technical know-how. In our country, people fall victim to cyber crime because they give out their information easily. For example, many times we ask others to do tax filing or bank-related work on our behalf. This information can be easily sold in the black market. Often, in order to get some small financial gains, people give out information and get robbed.”

Hatti cautioned that increasing use of mobile phone is also responsible. Nowadays more and more people are getting connected to banks, service providers and social networking sites through mobiles without having adequate security. The latest attack methodology is known as ‘App-planting’ by which attacker installs an app on the victim’s android phone without his knowledge. A gang can then sneak into the mobile phone and receive all information available on her/his phone. Very often, these deadly apps masquerade as games or news apps.

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